"They want to put their Loo in by the end of June," says Anne Peterson, Loo program coordinator for the sewer bureau. "They want to open in time for their summer season."

The Portland Loo was launched in part to solve concerns about a lack of public toilets for the city's homeless population. But they've been purchased by other cities in the Pacific Northwest chiefly as an addition to tourist districts.

WWreported in February that documents obtained in a lawsuit against the city show analysts for the Portland Water Bureau (which used to manage the Loos) used city email to drum up a social-media campaign soliciting votes in the contest.